Saturday I was the official starter at the Kingsley Go Green Olympics! It was a race for kids K-5th grade and basically a short loop course. Kids could sign up for as many laps as they wanted and would get a medal upon completing the event. Basically I just took kids as they came lined them up and blew the whistle to take off. I had a cow bell and was cheering them on. My kid is in the back here:

It was pretty fun. I was amazed at a few kids that did almost 40 laps, which was close to five miles. The event was two hours long and you could also shoot hoops, jump rope, and some other things, but some kids just ran the entire time or walked. My daughter did about a mile, which was about 8 laps, that was pretty good considering she said she only would do one!

So after this, I still had to get my long run in. I decided I would do this run on the treadmill. I ran for three hours while watching football. My legs were a bit aching on Friday so I took it easy. I did some speedwork on Wednesday that I was still paying for. I hadn't done speed work in many months, mostly because of my calf injury back in July. I got about 19.3 miles in and I was stiff. My wife and daughter filled up the pool in the back as it was hot, so I just sat in the cold water after I was done. Achilles stilled ached.

Sunday I woke up stiff and wanted to run for 4 hours. I was like.. no way.. too stiff. I was cursing this 50 miler. My daughter had to go to a birthday party and wife had to study, so I decided to take off down the Green bay trail which is where I run. I hit it for 3 hours, then hoped on the treadmill immediately after for another hour. I didn't have enough nutrition for 4 hours, so I decided to do 3 outside and refuel at home and just hit the treadmill to save the legs a bit. Originally I was just thinking 2 hours so I'm glad I got the 4 in. The aches went away as I ran. Got in 25 miles.

Overall 62 running miles for the week, 10 more miles than last week. I have one more mega weekend where I'll go 3 1/2 then 4 1/2-5 on the trail I'll be racing on up in Wisconsin. That should be fun, just need to watch out for bears and hunters!

Well the day came and came and came and went. IMWI was not the race I hoped for, in fact it was my slowest showing yet. Not due to poor preparation, but due to a few things which I had little control over. I finished 12:05 with a 1:14 swim, 5:55 bike, and 4:41 marathon. The marathon was a walk/run and I was in bad shape at this point.

The swim was a bit slow but my troubles started there with a powerful frog kick square in the middle of my face. It was enough to wake me up and I decided I would go wide of the buoys. Six minutes slower than my last IM swim, but not all that bad considering.

The trouble started on the bike. The night before my wife became sick. Stomach issues. I woke up not feeling all that well and had a hard time getting my bagel w peanut butter down. Only two hours into the bike I lost it. Threw up. I could not down my nutrition at this point and I was a long way from home. I had to hold off on the nutrition until my stomach came back, and I knew if I did this I would be in trouble as I need to get the calories in or I would bonk. Its catch 22. So I sort of struggled all the way through this sucker, and even though I finished 30 minutes faster than last year, I could have finished 50 minutes. I also got stung by a bee that got stuck in my aero helmet, in the head. I'm slightly allergic to these suckers, so I wasn't inspired by that.

By the time I got to the run, I was dizzy, dehydrated, and basically I had already bonked. I hit mile two and I sad ****, I'm in trouble. Its going to be a long one. And it was. I threw up a few more times. I ran into my coach around mile 13. He suggested I start taking chicken broth, I was way low on electrolytes at this point. This snapped me back and I could run again, but I would die down after 1/2 mile or so. I kept doing this to get me through the race. Toughest race I ever had in my life.

Me at the suffer fest next to the UW Madison football stadium.. Go badgers. I was running to tell my wife how much pain I was in and don't wait up

But finally I got through it

Sometimes it happens. I hope it doesn't happen to you, but if it does, just keep plugging away. Your training will pull through. I'm putting away my triathlon desires for the rest of the year. I'm racing at Ironman CdA and WI next year. I thought about Silverman, but I need to take a break from IM training and do something else...

So how about ultra running! I signed up for my first 50 miler in Wisconsin on October 25th! Hey maybe I can learn some stuff from Toby until then, but I start training this week! Keep you posted.

Its been a long summer and long time since I posted. Mostly I've been doing this:

Not much of anything! I just got back from 2 weeks vacation in North Carolina on the beach. I've been over trained and just stopped for awhile.

Since Rockman I put in some pretty good performances at Racine Half Iron AquaBike : 3:04 and took 6th place, then Steelhead HIM, which turned into a duathlon because of strong rip currents at 4:20, top 10%, with a ripping 23mph+ 56 mile bike ride. I missed qualifying for the World championship however. I had been recovering and still am recovering from a torn left calf, if I had more recovery time I could have come close to qualifying I think. I was able to do the Aquabike where originally I was going to do the Half Iron in Racine, as I could not yet run at that point. Steelhead was the first time I was able to run and did a 1:41 half marathon after the 2:20 56 mile bike. So not that bad considering I hadn't run in several weeks, at least not hard.

That was about 5 weeks before IMWI which was my main race, but I hit a wall since. I just got tired of it all and felt like I peaked already. I took lots of time off and skipped several key long rides. I was just sick of looking at my bike. Gained some weight, but I'm fully rested.

IMWI is next Sunday. I still plan on beating my time from last year, in fact I feel pretty strong even though my final month of training has gone south. I've put so much time in over the winter and training for my early season Ironman in Arizona, I'm not all that worried about my fitness. I know experience and my fitness already should prevail.

After Wisconsin I'll make a decision on what race I'll do next. Its either Halfmax Long course nationals which Ive qualified for, Indy Marathon, or Silverman Ironman. I like the idea of doing Silverman, but it depends on what happens in Wisconsin. My calf has still not healed fully and may need to take some weeks off of doing nothing afterwards. I'll post my race results when done!

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